CR’s Top 20 logos

With the help of our readers and industry experts, CR compiled a list of the top logos of all time: here are the stories behind each of them. This content was first published in our April 2011 issue and is available online now for the first time with additional and updated content

Related stories

So, here it is, our Top 20 logos. Not the 20 Greatest Brands Ever, notice, nor even the 20 Best Logos. It’s our Top 20: our favourites drawn from the views of the editorial team here at CR, our readers and the wider industry. We hope you enjoy discovering it, and disagreeing with it

Our current issue features CR’s top 20 logos of all time. The Woolmark is our number one, but mystery surrounds the identity of its designer In 1963, the International Wool Secretariat, now called Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) announced a global design competition to create a graphic identity for wool “which would hold consumer confidence and […]

Ian Dennis’ distinctive ‘NT’ logo has lost none of its charm since it was first introduced. In this extract from the book, TM, Dennis reveals how he came up with the design while working at FHK Henrion’s studio

New book TM is the result of eighteen months of research to expand our 2011 ‘logos’ issue into a collection of in-depth case studies on 29 of the world’s best examples – from British Steel, Centre Pompidou and ERCO, to the Musée d’Orsay, Pirelli and UPS… The seeds of the book were sown in the […]

NASA’s new identity of 1974 came out of the Nixon government’s desire to raise the standard of the design and communications within state departments, which resulted in the National Endowment for the Arts’ Federal Graphics Improvement Program. The space agency became one of its earliest test cases and designers Richard Danne and Bruce Blackburn were approached to present a new […]

The Design Research Unit created some of the UK’s most iconic pieces of graphic design, from London’s street signs to the British Rail logo. A UK touring show, which has started at London’s Cubitt Gallery, celebrates four decades of the group’s work.

‘Look again, think again’. When the Tate became simply Tate 16 years ago and moved its collection of modern art into a former power station on Bankside, this simple but challenging maxim became its guiding principle. True to its word ever since, Tate has kept more and more of us looking and thinking again. Since […]

Shepard Fairey has created a logo for the Rolling Stones’ 50th anniversary based on John Pasche’s 1971 original: but what’s going on with that type? Pasche created the original lips logo while still a student at the RCA, for which he was paid the princely sum of £50. In 2008 Pasche sold the original artwork […]

Recognise this? It’s the logo of the London Passenger Transport Board. And in 1933 it almost replaced one of the most famous logos of all time, the London Transport Roundel We have been busy gathering material for our March issue, which will be themed around the 150th birthday of the London Underground. Last Friday I […]

As part of the research for our Top 20 logos issue, we asked various designers and writers to nominate their favourites. We thought you’d like to see all of their choices and the reasons behind them. Here is the final batch of choices Tony Spaeth, Identity Works: 1. CBS by William Golden “Starkly simple. […]

As part of the research for our Top 20 logos issue, we asked various designers and writers to nominate their favourites. We thought you’d like to see all of their choices and the reasons behind them… Here are the first batch, more to follow Armin Vit/Bryony Gomez-Palacio, Brand New: 1. CN (Canadian National Railway) […]

Last week we revealed the results of our poll to discover your favourite logos. We also asked the Brand New blog in the US to take part in the survey and post the same question on their site. Here are the most popular 15 logos as voted by its readers… Brand New’s co-founder, Armin Vit, […]

Earlier this month, as part of our research for our April issue, we asked readers to nominate their top five logos of all time. Here are the top 15, as voted by you Our April issue will seek to compile a list of the 20 greatest logos of all time. Ever. (Yes, we know, but […]

When we asked readers to nominate their favourite logos last week we received a lot of votes for the classics of the genre. But the exercise also threw up some less celebrated but still worthy contenders For a special issue in April, we are putting together a list of the 25 greatest logos. Last week, […]

Our forthcoming April issue is going to be a bit special. Dedicated to the art of logo design, we’re going to include a definitive list of the 20 greatest marks ever created. And we want your nominations… In order to compile our list we’re going to canvas the expert opinion of designers, academics and critics […]